Republican lawmakers in Kentucky on Wednesday overturned the Democratic governor’s veto of a bill that would regulate some of the most private aspects of life for transgender youth, from banning access to gender-affirming health care to restricting the bathrooms they can use .

The votes for Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto was skewed in both legislative chambers true

the GOP

handling Republicans

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super majorities and came on the penultimate day of this year’s legislature. The Senate voted 29 to 8 to override Beshear’s veto. A short time later, the House completed the override by a vote of 76 to 23.

As emotions ran high, some of the people protesting the bill were removed from the home’s gallery and arrested after their prolonged chants reverberated in the room. The demonstrators, their hands tied, chanted,

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Here are more of us not here

!

as they waited to be whisked away from the Capitol.

Nineteen people were arrested and charged with third-degree criminal misdemeanor, Kentucky state police said. Officers gave each person the option of leaving without any enforcement action or being arrested, Capt. Paul Blanton, a police spokesman.

Republican House Speaker David Osborne later said it was a decision by state police to remove and arrest protesters.

I’m sorry it reached that level and they certainly, as I’ve been told since, were given multiple chances to either mute their chants or leave voluntarily, Osborne said.

The bills’ opponents have viewed the issue as civil

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right fight. Democratic Representative Sarah Stalker stated Kentucky will be on the wrong side of history by introducing the measure.

California law requires schools to notify parents if their child is transgender

Debate over the transgender law is likely to spill over into this year’s gubernatorial campaign, with Beshear’s veto pulling the GOP conviction as he seeks

re-election

a second term. There is also a legal battle brewing. The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky reaffirmed its intention to take this battle to court to try to preserve access to health care

care options for young transgender people.

While we lost the battle in the

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government, our defeat is temporary. We will not lose in court, Chris Hartman, executive director of the Fairness Campaign, told LGBTQ

+

interest group.

David Walls, Executive Director of

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Hello Family Foundation,

a Christian organization,

said the bill aligns the policy with the truth that every child is created as a man or woman and deserves to be loved, treated with dignity and accepted for who they really are.

A transgender psychologist has helped hundreds of teens transition. But rising numbers worry her

Activists on both sides of the passionate debate gathered at the

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tatehouse to make competitive calls before lawmakers took the transgender law in hand

after a long break

.

At a rally that drew hundreds of transgender rights supporters, trans teen Sun Pacyga held up a sign summarizing a grim revision of Republican law. The sign read: Our blood is on your hands.

If successful, access to gender-affirming health will be limited

worry, I think trans kids will die because of it, said the 17-year-old student, expressing lingering concerns among critics of the bill that the restrictions could lead to an increase in teen suicides.

Bill supporters rallied to defend the measure, saying it protects trans children from undergoing gender-affirming treatments they could regret as adults. However, research shows that such regrets are rare.

Treatment for trans children can start earlier, new guidelines say

We cannot allow people to continue down the path of fantasy where they will end up 10, 20, 30 years later and be miserable because of decisions they made when they were young, Republican Rep. Shane Baker said at a rally.

The legislation in Kentucky is part of a national movement, with state legislators

this year

adopting comprehensive measures to curtail LGBTQ rights

+

people

this year

from bills targeting trans athletes and drag performers to measures restricting gender-affirming care.

Have at least 11 states

now

Enacted laws restricting or prohibiting gender affirmative care for minors: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Utah, South Dakota, and West Virginia. Federal judges have blocked enforcement of laws in Alabama and Arkansas, and nearly two dozen states are considering bills this year to restrict or ban healthcare.

The debate among Kentucky legislators reflected the impassioned arguments advanced at rallies.

We are denying families, their doctors and their therapists the right to make medically informed decisions for their families, Democratic Senator Karen Berg said against the bill. Berg read what her son, Henry Berg-Brousseau, wrote when he advocated for transgender rights shortly before his death late last year at the age of 24. The cause was suicide, his mother said.

A sports radio host from Texas moved to Hawaii to protect his trans son. Few can do the same

Republican Senator Robby Mills said he supported the bill because of his belief that “puberty blockers and sex hormones, when administered to under-18s to age their appearance, are dangerous to that child’s health.

Medical treatments for transgender people have long been available in the United States and are endorsed by major medical associations.

The Kentucky measure prohibits gender-affirming care for minors. It will ban gender reassignment surgery for anyone under the age of 18, as well as the use of puberty blockers and hormones, and inpatient and outpatient hospital services that confirm gender.

Doctors will need to set a timetable for the transition of children who are already taking puberty blockers or hormone therapy. They can continue to provide care while tapering off a young person’s treatment if stopping treatment immediately could be harmful to the child.

Parts of the bill on gender-affirming medical care go into effect in about three months.

Republican lawmakers are advancing transgender law in Kentucky

The bill does not allow schools to discuss sexual orientation or gender identity with students of any age. It also requires school districts to enact restroom policies that at the very least do not allow transgender children to use the bathroom consistent with their gender identity.

It further allows teachers to refuse to refer to transgender students by the pronouns they use and requires schools to notify parents when classes on human sexuality are held.

Another trans teen, Hazel Hardesty, said the possible discontinuation of gender-affirming health

worry would mean my male puberty would continue’, which would cause a lot of mental problems.

People don’t even understand what it feels like, the 16-year-old said in an interview at a rally. “When you go through the wrong puberty, your body is a little further away from what feels like you every day. And you end up not even recognizing yourself in the mirror.